Australian singer Shelley Segal stirs up drug furore in Morocco

Danielle McGrane

Melbourne folk singer Shelley Segal has been criticised for her song Morocco. Photo: Angela Wylie

Melbourne folk singer-songwriter has been criticised in the Moroccan press and attacked in social media for a song she wrote about drug-taking in the country.

Shelley Segal wrote the song, Morocco, about her experience when she visited the country as a 19-year-old in 2007 and made a video in Marrakesh and Essaouira to accompany it.

Soon after she posted the video online, she found a story written in French on Moroccan news site, Afriquinfos, claiming she had "denounced the kingdom" in the song.

"I clicked on it (the article) and put it in Google translate and it said: `Young Australian singer writes song very critical of Morocco,' Segal said.

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"And then it said later that I had denounced the kingdom. Which I have never done."

Segal said the song focuses on her positive experience as a tourist and how accessible she found the country, alongside some of the social issues she noticed while she was there.

"It's just to contrast that situation as a tourist and having fun and getting to escape my troubles, contrasted with some troubles local people are facing and questioning what is my place here ... and what troubles do I actually have," she said.

Segal also sings about being offered weed in the marketplace and about playing music with an eight-year-old boy who she noticed was "high as a kite from sniffing glue all night and... I wondered if he'd make it to 16". The song's chorus includes the lines: "Shelley do you want to go fly in the sky / Shelley don't you want to get high and watch all your worries and troubles pass you by".

"I have dreadlocks and people called out 'Hey Rasta, do you want to buy some weed' and that was the refrain, literally, of my trip so that fell naturally into the chorus of my song," Segal said.

"There were quite a few children in the square at night that had been, they sniff glue, it's quite a common thing in Marrakesh."

After the article was published, Segal noticed a rise in people commenting on her video and says the comments were mostly negative.

"It's only been out a week and it's already got over 37,000 views and quite a lot of comments, mostly negative," she said.

"Some people, some of the comments, said I was complaining that these people were approaching me trying to sell me drugs in a sly way and that wasn't the point of my song. It wasn't to criticise anyone offering me drugs it was more just to highlight that contrast," she said.

Some of the attacks, however, have been quite personal.

"A lot of people are saying that I'm a fat cow and that's the most common comment really," Ms Segal said.

The singer remains philosophical about the attention and said she's pleased her song has resonated with people.

"There's been some really positive comments as well. They're in the minority but there are people from Morocco saying they love the song."